Many conventional carpets have a visually discernable pattern such that, in a flooring installation, adjoining carpet pieces must be positioned in the same orientation, and often in registration, so that discontinuities are not visible when the carpet pieces are joined. This is because conventional carpet normally has a “direction” as a result of the manufacturing process, the pattern on the carpet, and/or the coloration of the pattern on the carpet. Further, conventional production techniques, particularly including tufting techniques, cause the carpet pile to lean or have a nap direction. This “nap” of the carpet causes the carpet piece to have a different appearance depending on variations in lighting and viewing conditions if it is positioned in a different direction than the adjoining piece of carpet with which it is placed.
Thus, conventional installation of many carpet styles requires careful attention to the respective positions of the adjoining pieces of carpet so that a pattern “match” occurs between the adjoining carpet pieces. Conventional carpet designs require tedious installation on basic side-to-side or butt-to-butt installation of adjoining carpet pieces. This matching process is further complicated as variations in color may require that adjoining carpet pieces in a particular flooring installation all use rolls or pieces dyed in the same dye lot to avoid the potential for unacceptable differences between adjacent carpet pieces resulting from variations in dying.
Thus, the appearance of the entire carpet installation may be compromised if one conventional carpet broadloom piece in a flooring installation is not properly matched to adjacent carpet broadloom pieces. The carpet installer, therefore, must ensure proper pattern matching of the respective adjoining carpet pieces. This may necessitate the removal of portion of the adjoining carpet broadloom pieces to obtain the proper pattern match, which results in carpet waste and additional installation and product expense.
A substantial demand exists for flooring designs that have a design that can cover the entire flooring installation or part of the flooring installation and that allows for ready installation of adjoining pieces of broadloom carpet without requiring registration or matching of the respective adjoining pieces of broadloom carpet. A further demand exists for carpet that can be produced from separate dye lots and that does not require roll sequencing.